With the whole country having been effected by the weather over the start of this season, it has been difficult for many people to race anywhere. However the lack of seat time so far this season didn’t stop Team Concord, who picked up many fantastic results and plenty of silverware came back to Essex.
The first round of the UKAC was held at Oxton Raceway by the Nottingham club. A cold but dry weekend saw some fast competitive racing across the board.
Team Concord were represented by Mark Stone in class 1, Anthony Teather and Graham Douglas in class 3, Mike Sullivan in class 5, Trevor Martin and Barry Hathaway in class 7, the junior saloons of Beth Embling and Victoria Stone, Paul Maxim in Stock Hatch, David Saunders and Barry Hathaway in class 8 and the ladies of Lianne Teather and Sharon Douglas in the 3’s, Kelly Thomas in Stock Hatch and Lynn Thomas in 8.
Mark’s results in the class 1 improved over the heats, including a 3rd in heat two and a 2nd in heat three. This qualified him for the B final, but unfortunately was unable to run.
The class three boys had mixed fortunes. Dougie’s weekend never took off when unfortunately in the first race the engine died, this put both him and Sharon out for the rest of weekend. Anthony however had a good bag of results with a 3rd in heat one and a 1st in heat two. This put him comfortably in the A final of the class, where after many reruns he collected one of many Essex trophies coming 2nd.
Mike had his best weekend so far in the class five with a 2nd in heat one, 3rd in heat two and another 2nd in heat three. This put him as second qualifier for the A final, where he ran another strong race with a 6th.
Trevor had his very first meeting of the year, but picked up where he left off last year with two 2nd’s from heats one and three. Barry also had a successful weekend in the class on his second meeting out in it, with 1st’s in heats two and three – he had been leading heat one by half a lap before he got a puncture that put him to the back of the field. These results got both the guys into the A final, where after a very close four-way battle between the two of them and another two cars they came out on top with Barry finishing in 2nd and Trevor 3rd. Yep, that’s another two trophies.
Victoria in the junior saloon was plagued with the same problem in heat three which stopped Mark racing the final, but a 4th and 5th in heats one and two saw how competitive she is. Beth had a weekend of two halves, with 2nd places in heats two and three putting her into the A final. However after leading the final, a mistake saw her drop down the grid, and then a tag from another car took her out of the final.
Paul had a mixed weekend, with his best result coming in heat three with a 3rd. His results weren’t quite enough to get him into the final, but he wasn’t far off.
David’s weekend wasn’t as successful as we’ve seen in the past, but he was still up there in the battles, not giving in with his best result a 4th in heat two. Barry had another set of great results in this class with a 2nd in heat two and a 3rd in heat three, putting him as the last qualifier for the A final. In the final he went on to collect his second trophy of the weekend with a 3rd place.
The ladies of the club also had a successful weekend. Unfortunately for Sharon she didn’t get a run, but the rest of us girls came home with a trophy. Lianne had a consistent run over the weekend with getting 2nd places in all three heats, but as the last runner of the class she came home with one better, a 1st place trophy. I had my first outing in 8 years, and although the only lady racing Stock Hatch I came away with three heat wins and a 1st place trophy. I did however race with two class 4’s and two class 6’s and each time was lapped. More speed for me next time. The hardest fought trophy of the ladies was Lynn’s. A good run in the heats including a 2nd in heat one and a 3rd in heat two saw her qualify for the A final, where after a race long battle she came home in 4th.
With anyone finishing 1st or 2nd in the A finals able to race in both the Men’s and Ladies Champion of Champions, we had many potential runners, but it was only Barry who went out in the class 7. A busy field of cars saw him work his way up to 6th.
My next planned stop on tour is the MAP Open on 4th and 5th June at the Evesham track. Hopefully I will see some of you there and even better see some of you beforehand.
Heat 1 | Heat 2 | Heat 3 | Final | CoC | |
Mark Stone
C931E (Class 1) |
5th | 3rd | 2nd | NS (B) | X |
Anthony Teather
C266E (Class 3) |
3rd | 1st | 4th | 2nd (A) | NS |
Mike Sullivan
C11E (Class 5) |
2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 6th (A) | X |
Trevor Martin
C18E (Class 7) |
2nd | 5th | 2nd | 3rd (A) | X |
Barry Hathaway
C183E (Class 7) |
7th | 1st | 1st | 2nd (A) | 6th |
Beth Embling
C535E (JnrSal) |
7th | 2nd | 2nd | BF | X |
Victoria Stone
C931E (JnrSal) |
4th | 5th | NS | X | X |
Paul Maxim
C23E (SH) |
5th | 6th | 3rd | X | X |
David Saunders
C12E (Class 8) |
5th | 4th | 6th | X | X |
Barry Hathaway
C83E (Class 8) |
5th | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd (A) | X |
Lianne Teather
C266E (Lds3) |
2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | NS |
Kelly Thomas
Y76 (LdsSH) |
1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | NS |
Lynn Thomas
C21E (Lds8) |
2nd | 3rd | 5th | 4th | X |